This past Friday afternoon, June 17, I fished a Fort Hood SKIES program trip with three siblings: Greg, Aurea, and Chris Hughes. The Hughes are an Army family newly arrived here at Fort Hood after spending the past several years stationed in Germany.

Gregory Hughes III of Copperas Cove proudly displays his new Junior Angler Catch & Release category record-setting fish for Belton Lake.  This fish measured 25 3/8″.

In addition to Greg’s new lake record, both Aurea (center) and Chris (right) landed the first fish of their lives on today’s trip, thus earning each a TPWD “First Fish Award”.

As I got acquainted with the kids, I discovered that only Greg had ever caught a fish before. So, Job #1 was to make sure that first Chris, the youngest, and then Aurea, the middle sister, caught the first fish of their lives. This afternoon breeze combined with recent severe flooding made panfishing for three kids simultaneously a bit of a challenge, so we went with a downrigger option and within the first 40 minutes on the lake, both younger kids had landed the first fish of their lives.

We downrigged for the first two hours, then used live shad to focus on larger, but fewer, hybrid striped bass, and by around 8:10, little Chris had about played out and we wrapped up our trip.

The highlight of today’s trip was Greg’s capture of a new Junior Angler category catch and release hybrid striped bass. This outsized hybrid weighed 8.25 pounds and measured 25 3/8 inches. This is the largest hybrid striper I’ve had come aboard my boat since May of 2011 when the current catch and release adult category hybrid striped bass was caught by Mrs. Lacey Sparkman.

Greg’s fish struck a 3 1/2 inch live shad fished within 3 feet of bottom in approximately 26 feet of water.

For our efforts today, the kids boated a total of 22 fish.

SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

TALLY = 22 Fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time:  8:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 94F

Water Surface Temp:  85.1

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE7-9

Sky Conditions:  15% white cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level:  Belton is over 22′ above full pool with an ongoing release of 5,500 to 5,700 cfs, causing a daily drop of .2 to.3 feet.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1577/1760/493 downrigging for short hybrids and whites

**Area 1763 steady hybrid bite on live shad

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This past Friday morning, June 17, I fished Lake Belton lake with Danny Marriott and his parents, Harold and Bonnie Holmans, who traveled in for a visit with kids, grandkids, and great grandkids in the Georgetown, TX area.  The two drove in, without stopping overnight, all the way from Hobbs, New Mexico — Harold is 86 and Bonnie is 79.

From left: Bonnie and Harold Holmans of Hobbs, NM, cashed in on some Belton Lake hybrid fishing while here in Texas visiting family for a few days.

Although the most aggressive bite occurred in the first 75 minutes of our trip, a slower, but steady bite continued right through around 10am.  Harold doubled up while fishing live shad in around 32′.

Lake Belton is still over 22 feet high, but is now slowly dropping. I came equipped this morning with top water rods, slabs, downriggers, and live shad, not knowing exactly what to expect.

We begin our search for fish around 6:15 AM, searching for signs of schooling fish feeding on shad on top water. I found no such action this morning. I transitioned to studying sonar in 25 to 45 feet of water, above the developing thermocline. Sonar revealed both suspended and bottom-oriented fish in 25 to 32 feet of water.

The posture of the suspended fish led me to believe we could capitalize on these fish with downriggered baits run horizontally. Running a tandem bait on the port side, and a three armed umbrella rig on the starboard side, we landed numerous singles and doubles on Pet Spoons, allowing us to boat a total of 17 fish in our first 75 minutes on the water, including a number of legal hybrid striped bass.

After this active downrigger bite softened, we remained in the same general vicinity and fished live bait just up off the bottom and continued to pick up both short and legal sized hybrid striped bass right up until 9:45 AM when this bite also weakened. By 10:15, things had slowed to a crawl and we decided to call it a day with exactly 52 fish boated, including one blue catfish, several white bass, and both short and legal sized hybrid striped bass.

From our fixed position while fishing bait, I observed all morning for top water action, no matter how brief.  I never saw any top water action today with the winds less than 12 mph the entire time.  The absence of topwater action in the summer months often correlates with the several days either side of the full moon.

 

TALLY = 52 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  10:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8 at trip’s start, increasing slowly to SSE12 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  Variable clouds from 30-40% on a fair sky all morning.

Water Level: ~22  feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Lake is falling ~0.2 to0.3 feet per day

GT = 80

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1641 to 1762 downrigging for heavily schooled white bass and hybrid in the first 75 minutes of light

**Area 1762 – live shad fished near bottom in 32′

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This past Saturday, June 11, I fished with Tony Grepares and his 10-year-old son, Adony. Tony decided to take some downtime from the digital printing business he owns to spend some father-and-son time with Adony now that he has completed his 5^th grade year.

From left: Tony Grepares and his ten-year-old son, Adony, with one of over 20 hybrid stripers we caught near midday on live shad in just over 30 feet of water after a very slow morning.

Adony Grepares with an early morning hybrid striper taken on shad after he got the hang of using circle hooks down.  This was the very first hybrid Adony had ever caught.

The pair drove in from the west Houston area yesterday, took in Jacob’s Well near Wimberly together, then headed north to stay for the night in Temple before meeting me for a morning of fishing on Lake Belton.

We had planned to meet at 6:30, but did not get going until closer to 6:50. I arrived at the boat ramp area very early due to the limited access situation at Belton Park, and upon hearing from Tony that they were running behind, decided to use this little bit of downtime to search for top water action. Long story short, I saw no fishable top water action all morning this morning.

We really struggled most of the morning, giving live shad a thorough try in our first three hours on the water, then picking up with the downriggers between 10:45 and 11:45a.

While using shad, we got on one bunch of fish in about 30 feet of water early in the morning, caught only four fish and missed at least as many as the fellows got used to using circle hooks. When that area played out, we went looking elsewhere, only to return to within 50 yards of the same area to pick up a fifth and sixth fish.

Not only was finding fishable quantities of fish difficult, the bite was really soft when we did find fish.

Between 10:45 and 11:45a, we continued to pick at fish, this time with downriggers adding two white bass to our tally. Then, around noon, with the wind reaching its highest velocity for the morning, and the skies clearing to the greatest extent so far in the day, we found a nice concentration of 18-20 inch hybrid stripers in about 32 feet of water stacked up to 25 feet. We put 22 of these fish in the boat in the next 75 minutes, thus ending a pretty tough, slow morning with quite a memorable finish.

We wrapped up the day with exactly 30 fish boated, including the first white bass that Adony had ever caught, and the first hybrid that either father or son had ever caught.

 

 

TALLY = 30 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  1:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temp:  81.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8 at trip’s start, increasing slowly to SSE12 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  90% low grey cloud cover through 9:00a, then slowly clearing to 40% white clouds on a blue sky by trip’s end

Water Level: ~22.56 feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Despite this release, the lake still rose another 0.54 feet in the last 24 hours.

GT = 15

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1632 – live shad for mixed bag of whites, hybrid and drum

**Area 1760 – downrigging for sparse white bass

**Area 1761 – strong hybrid bite on live shad in 32′ with baits set at 24 to 29′

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This past Friday morning, June 10th, I was joined by 9-year-old Ethan Munoz for a Fort Hood SKIES program fishing trip on Lake Belton.  More information on this program for military kids appears at the end of this report.

Ethan Munoz of West Fort Hood gives the thumbs up with one of the many white bass we caught via downrigging and using live shad.

Belton Lake is badly flooded now, with nearly 22 feet of flood water and the elevation still rising as Lake Proctor continues to dump water into the Leon River which then flows into Belton.

There is now only on public location available to launch a boat and it is a bit dicey, but, we made do and got out fishing around 6:45am.

First, let me say that Ethan really knew how to endear himself to his fishing guide.  He told me that being a fisherman was always a dream of his (he was doing great so far!), and then asked me how long I’d been fishing.  I told him I’d been fishing since I was just 2 years old.  He said, “Wow, that’s a lot of years ago.  When were you born?”   I told him to take a guess.  He said, “Um, maybe in 1942.”  I am 47 and was born in 1969  (Ethan was no longer doing so well).

Thanks to a nearly calm surface, the location of both baitfish and the gamefish that feed upon them were able to be detected from a distance thanks to the optics I keep aboard.  We headed to the action and saw on sonar that there were far more fish beneath the surface about midway down in the water column than there were at the surface.  This called for a downrigging approach.

I got the #Cannon #Digi-Troll #downriggers all rigged and ready to go, equipped with a tandem rig with Pet Spoons on the starboard side and a 3-armed umbrella rig with Pet Spoons on the port side.  We didn’t have to go 50 yards before we had our first fish on within seconds of wetting a line.  Just like that Ethan had earned a TPWD First Fish Award!  We went on to catch an even dozen white bass in this fashion as singles and doubles came aboard steadily from the 18-20 foot level.

Next, we tried to up the ante and catch a few larger fish by targeting hybrid striped bass with live shad.  Fortunately, just as we discussed this option, a light S. wind picked up and began to disturb the surface of the lake and move the water.  This typically improves the fish, and, today, certainly turned the hybrid stripers on.  We sat in one location at a breakline from 25-30 feet and boated 5 hybrid stripers, 3 white bass, 1 blue cat, and 1 drum.  I kept an eye on Ethan, suspecting that, as for most 9-year-olds, watching the end of a baited rod would not hold his attention for too long.  Once I saw the novelty wearing off, I was prepared to introduce our final “skill” of the day — that of shallow water panfishing for sunfish with floats and bait.

This shallow water fishing produced a variety of sunfish and 2 blacktail shiners.  About the time the 27th fish was landed, mom, grandma, and sister showed up in the family mini-van, letting us know that 4 hours had gone by quickly.  As we headed back in to the launch area Ethan said, “I always wanted to be a fisherman, and now my dream came true.”

SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

TALLY = 27Fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  80.1

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm at trips start, tapering quickly up to S7 at mid-morning.

Sky Conditions:  40% high clouds on a hazy sky.

Water Level: 615.97 and rising with 594.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 5,732 cubic feet per second.  Despite the release, the lake rose .57 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1578 thru 493 downrigging parallel to shore with weights at 18-22 feet

**Area 1759 mixed bag fishing for whites, hybrid, blue cat, and drum on live shad fished just off bottom in 25-30′ on breakline

**Area 1583 shallow panfishing

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This past Thursday, June 2nd, I fished both a morning and an evening trip on Lake Belton.  The morning was spent was Will Almond of Kempner, TX, and David Ross of Salado, TX.  These fellows became friends while working as pharmacists for HEB.

David Ross with a nice 4.25 pound Belton Lake hybrid striper caught on live shad at mid-morning in about 40 feet of water.

Will Almond with one of many hybrid stripers we took off the windward side of a breakline in 40 feet of water.  Short hybrid and white bass were also mixed in with the bruisers.

These two Thursday trips would wind up being the last two trips I would fish on Belton for some time to come, as rising flood water forced closure of all of the lakes Corps of Engineers ramps the following day.

For the time being, I’ll be relocating my efforts down to Lake Walter E. Long (formerly known as Decker Lake), near the Austin-Bergstrom Airport and Travis County Convention Center.  This “hot water” power plant lake fishes well for white bass, hybrid striper, sunfish, and largemouth bass.

As Will, David and I got going on Thursday, we knew we would be interrupted by thunderstorms at some point, as the low pressure system that had already dropped so much rain would sit right over central Texas and swirl storm cells over us in a counter-clockwise, hurricane-like fashion.

The two were just happy to leave the work-a-day world behind for a few hours, regardless of the conditions, so, off we went.

During our first hour on the water, we encountered some light topwater feeding activity with white bass and a few small largemouth pushing young of the year shad to the surface.  Having see the same thing happen around this time on Tuesday’s trip, this morning I came equipped with popping cork rigs specifically intended for this sort of fishing.  Fortunately, both fellow could cast both far and accurately, and they capitalized on this scenario, putting 21 fish in the boat before our first encounter with weather.

Long story short, we simply rode out a thunder-and-lightning laced deluge of rain for about 70 minutes just pulled up onto a bank in a steep sided cove so as not to be the high point for lightning to find.  We kept an eye on the weather radar app on my smartphone, and, when the radar and absence of lightning indicated all was well, we got right back to fishing (in the rain).

We hit a hump topping out at 25 feet and boated a blue cat and 2 white bass on slabs with a few more white bass and short hybrid on live shad before that area played out.

About this time, a bit of a wind from the SSE developed, so I moved us so as to fish on several underwater features being impacted by this wind.

From this point on we used live shad of all sizes to put an additional 20 fish in the boat including white bass, legal-sized hybrid stripers, and short hybrid, as well.

As we headed back in, I looked for an opportunity to demonstrate how the pair of #Cannon downriggers I have work, as the fellows had express curiosity about them.  I found a tightly schooled bunch of white bass on sonar in about 22 feet of water as we headed back to the boat ramp, so, we U-turned, dropped the downrigging gear in, and plucked one white bass out of the pack with a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons.

I extended the trip to ensure we fished well beyond the 4-hours that the fellows had paid for, and ended up our day around 1:30p with 53 fish boated.

 

TALLY = 53 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  1:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 71F

Water Surface Temp:  75-76F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW9-10

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover with rain through 9:45a, then slowly clearing to 40% white clouds on a blue sky by trip’s end

Water Level: ~11 feet above full pool with no release of water currently ongoing due to flooding in the lower Brazos River near Houston and Bryan.

GT = 95

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1756 and the coves to the N and S of this point — topwater whites on popping rig

**Area 1632 – slab and shad for whites, hybrid, and a bluecat

**Area 1636/1622 hybrid on live shad

**Area 618/1666 hybrid on live shad

**1634 – downrigging demo for 1 white bass

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This past Tuesday, May 31st, as Belton Lake continued to rapidly rise, I welcomed brothers John and Bruce Campbell aboard for a morning in pursuit of hybrid striped bass.

Bruce Campbell with a nice Belton Lake hybrid striper caught on live shad at mid-morning in about 40 feet of water.

From left: Bruce and John Campbell with the very first hybrid striped bass of the day, which, coincidentally, was the first hybrid striper that John had ever landed.  This fish hit a trolled 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons.

Due to multiple boatramp closures, I had to launch at Arrowhead Park and drive by boat to Cedar Creek to pick these fellows up where they were camping.

Both brothers are originally from Arizona, but Bruce now lives in north Austin.  John drove over from Arizona pulling a camper and camped at the Corps of Engineers park at Cedar Creek on Belton where Bruce joined him for an overnight stay before the two headed to Bruce’s place for graduation exercises later in the week.  The flooding situation is so fluid (pun kind of intended), that I phoned the park rangers right at closing time (4:30pm) on Monday to determine the status of the various ramps I had as options to launch from for this trip.

We got going around 6:30am under dark, murky skies.  We headed to shallow water first where what little light was coming through the clouds would be penetrating.  We scored quickly when John’s downrigger rod went off with a double on two of the three Pet Spoons on his 3-armed umbrella rig, landing a short white bass and a keeper hybrid.

John typically fishes from a smaller boat equipped with a less-than-10 horsepower motor and trolling motor, trolling for high-altitude trout in several Arizona lakes.  One of his most productive tactics is trolling cow bells, which are a long, linear contraption of weights, spinner blades and colored beads which, for some reason, appeal to trout and salmon species – most likely because they imitate a school of baitfish.  Most of John’s fishing is done in 20 feet of water or less, so the concept of controlled depth trolling with my #Cannon downrigging equipment was intriguing to him.

Subsequent passes in this area yielded little, so we made our way into progressively clearer water.

As we cruised, I spotted a nice pod of white bass surface feeding on young of the year shad over 35-40 feet of water.  We eased into these fish so as not to spook them, and cast white slabs into them and retrieved these lures quickly to keep our baits up high in the water column.  About every other well-placed cast caught a fish while the action lasted (about 25 minutes).  During this time we boated an additional 17 fish.

From this point on, we never saw any additional surface action as the wind picked up and rippled the surface.  All of our fishing through the close of the trip was done with live shad on downlines at two different areas.

This tactic added another 18 fish to our count, including a number of keeper (18+ inch) hybrid stripers on the combination of threadfin and gizzard shad we offered.

As I dropped the fellows off at the very same location we’d begun our day at, we noted the water had risen another 5-6″ in the several hours we were on the water.

 

TALLY = 37 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  12:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp:  75.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW9-10

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover for the entire trip.

Water Level: ~9.75 feet above full pool with no release of water currently ongoing due to flooding in the lower Brazos River near Houston and Bryan.

GT = 95

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1668 downrigging at first light

**Area 507 topwater whites

**Area 1629 hybrid on live shad

**Area 1634/1681 hybrid on live shad

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This past Memorial Day Monday, May 30th, I welcomed Mr. Chad Zuckero and his boys, 10-year-old Josh and 6-year-old Blaine, aboard for some “guy time”.

Chad and his oldest son, Josh, with a nice Belton Lake hybrid striper caught on live shad.

Chad and his younger son, Blaine, with a nice Belton Lake hybrid striper caught on live shad.

 

Despite a number of attempts at a number of venues using a variety of tactics, the trio just hadn’t put it all together in a way that produced the kind of success that keeps kids interested.  Chad was hoping to not just catch fish, but to understand the approach to catching them so as to help his boys be successful.

We started with the basics — small hooks, small weights, small floats, and worms, and targeted sunfish in the newly flooded vegetation around the lake’s edge.

Our planned 6:30am start was delayed an hour and a quarter by persistent lightning overhead.  As we all sat in the family car, I got to cover my standard safety briefing and talk about how we’d approach the day once the storm cleared, so at least those things were out of the way allowing to get right down to fishing once it was safe to do so.

When we got on the water around 7:45, I headed to a pair of protected coves so wind would not negatively impact the boys’ control of their presentations.  I did one quick demo and the boys, both fast learners, got the hang of things and consistently landed sunfish on their own over the next hour and a half.  We wound up with 31 sunfish of various sorts: bluegill, greens, and longears.  I then suggested we give another tactic in another area a try for some even larger fish — the white bass.

As we headed to open water the winds really kicked up and boat control was a bit tough, thus, we only worked one downrigger at first.  The fishing was so consistent thanks to the fish being tightly buckled down on one area, that we picked up a fish on nearly every pass.  This led me to “fast forward” to our third tactic, that of fishing with live shad.

As we made the switch to shad over top of the fish we’d been downrigging for, our catch began to include more hybrid and fewer white bass — a nice problem to have!

Once this fairly shallow area played out as the skies brightened and the wind calmed, we moved on to deeper water more significantly impacted by the wind and continued catching a nice mix of keeper hybrid, short hybrid and white bass right up until the fish finally quit biting around 12:15pm.

TALLY = 52 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a (due to lightning delay)

End Time:  12:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  75.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm winds after the thunderstorm passed which delayed our start, and until the skies began to clear.  Winds SE17-20 as the western-most edge of the clouds passed over and started to allow clearing, followed by lighter winds at S6-8 for the balance of the trip.

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover for the first 2 hours, followed by rapidly clearing conditions.

Water Level: ~9 feet above full pool with no release of water currently ongoing.  As I departed Roger’s Park, the park had been shut down, thus locking me in — the Corps Ranger left the gate code on my windshield.

GT = 50

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1753/4 sunfish

**Area 1634 whites and hybrid on downriggers and then live shad

**Area 1619 and 618 – hybrid on live shad

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Last Saturday, May 28th, I conducted the 2016 season’s fourth SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip.  Joining me for this adventure were Mrs. Jessica Ochoa, and her 11-year-old daughters, Nevaeh Ochoa and Alycia Williams, as well as the baby of the family, little Arianna Ochoa.

From left: Neveah Ochoa and Alycia Williams earned their TPWD First Fish Awards as they targeted sunfish in the newly flooded green brush on Lake Belton.

U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ochoa is currently deployed to South Korea where he serves as a mortarman in an infantry unit.

Since neither Nevaeh nor Alycia had ever caught a fish before, we started with the basics this afternoon, using long, telescoping sunfish poles and slip float baited with pieces of worm to attract a variety of sunfish from out of the newly flooded greenery around the lake’s perimeter.  The girls were soon onto their first fish, thus easily earning their TPWD First Fish Awards.  After each of the girls “got the hang of it”, it was tough for me to keep up taking their fish off the hook and rebaiting.   By the time we decided to give the sunfish a rest, the girls had boated exactly 40 sunfish, including longears, bluegill, and green sunfish.

Next, we headed to open water to pursue larger quarry — the white bass.  For this segment of our trip, I opted to go with downriggers after sonar revealed large schools of fish in 18-22 feet.  We started off slowly with one 3-armed umbrella rigged fished on the starboard downrigger.  Once the girls each caught a few fish, we expanded to one 3-armed umbrella rig and one tandem rig, all outfitted with Pet Spoons fished now on 2 downriggers.  Soon the girls were once again hard to keep up with as we landed singles, doubles and even a triple (one fish on each of the 3 Pet Spoons on the umbrella rig).

As the 24th white bass came aboard, little Arianna had had all of the fun, sun, and waves her little body could stand and she began to get a bit cranky.  Wisely, Jessica decided to call it a day while all was still manageable and we headed back in.

The Austin Fly Fishers donates funds and seeks funding from individuals and organizations to make this SKIFF program a reality for homefront spouses and their children.

They do not ask for thanks or recognition, they simply desire others to take advantage of the opportunities this program offers.  If your spouse is away on military duty, your child(ren) qualify for a free SKIFF fishing adventure.  Please just phone me at the number below to make arrangements for your trip!

 

 

TALLY = 64 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time:  8:30

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 91F

Water Surface Temp:  76F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light and variable first hour or so, then going SE6-7

Sky Conditions:  Steadily clearing from a fully overcast morning.

Water Level: ~8.25 feet above full pool and steadily rising due to flooding downstream on the Brazos and therefore no release from the dam.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1753 – Sunfish on slipfloats

**Area 816 to 172 – 24 white bass on downriggers along the 18-22 foot contour

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This past Saturday afternoon, May 21st, I was joined by Mrs. Jennifer Katz, her daughter, Cayli Katz, and Cayli’s cousin, Matty Solorzano, for a Fort Hood SKIES program fishing trip on Lake Belton.  See the end of this summary for more info. on the SKIES program.

From left: Matty Solorzano, Cayli Katz, and Jennifer Katz with one of the several hybrid stripers Cayli and Matty landed in the 3.00 to 4.25 pound class.

The trip was focused on Cayli and her success with Matty and Jennifer along for the ride. Cali had never caught a fish before in her life, but, she was both eager and teachable, so I knew as soon as we met that we’d have a good time and that she would be successful.

Elton Lake is normally in a transition period by now, but, thanks to cooler than normal water temperatures, the patterns that have been in place for more than a month now have continued to hold up, and this evening was no exception.

In order to give Cayli as much exposure to various techniques and species as I could, I broke the trip up into 4 “segments”.  Segment one consisted of down rigging during our first hour on the water.  It did not produce.

Segment two consisted of fishing in deep, open water for hybrid striper.  We got on fish using sonar, and enjoyed an hour-long, very productive bite, putting 15 fish in the boat including 9 keepers of 18 inches or larger.  After battling 9 or 10 of these hard-pulling fish, Cayli’s hands were worn out.  She “donated” the rest of the fish that bit to cousin Matty.  Seeing this, I suggested we move on to Segment three.  So, we left these fish biting to pursue fish that were a bit more tame.

Segment three consisted of fishing for panfish with slip floats up shallow in the flooded terrestrial brush.  We caught 20 sunfish in about an hour’s time, including bluegills, green sunfish, and longear sunfish.  The kids both got up enough nerve toward the end of the sunfishing to hold their fish and remove the hooks.

Our grand finale took us to 35-40 feet of water from 7:45p to 8:20p.  Sonar revealed very aggressively feeding gamefish in the lower 2/3 of the water column.  This “low light” bite is typically very aggressive, but also short-lived.  I trained the kids up very quickly in the use of spinning gear, and they went right to work working their slabs aggressively in the same zone where the fish were.  Getting the right cadence down was a bit of a trick for these two rookies, but, when the got it down, they got results.  Both were able to land a number of white bass, short hybrid and keeper hybrid in the 25-30 minutes that this action lasted.  Then, when it was over, it was over.

For their efforts, the kids landed 41 fish, and Cayli earned a TPWD First Fish Award!

SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

TALLY = 41 Fish, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time:  8:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Water Surface Temp:  75.2

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE13 at trips start, tapering down to E7

Sky Conditions:  85% grey cloud cover with occasional breaks

Water Level: 601.83 and falling with 594.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 3,561 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.04 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1277, solid hybrid bite on live shad from 5:15 to 6:30p

**Area 1583 shallow panfishing 6:30p to 7:45p

**Area 1728-153 mixed bag fishing for whites and hybrids of all sizes on a frenzy hitting smoked slabs in lower 2/3 of water column
 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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