This morning I conducted the ninth SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip of the 2015 season, taking Ryan Bolin and Lukus Vieira out for a multi-species fishing trip on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.

Ryan is the son of Sergeant First Class Timothy Flynn and Mrs. Jennifer Flynn.  SFC Flynn is currently deployed to Kuwait with the 154th Transportation unit; he has served in the U.S. Army for 17 years.

Lukus is the son of Staff Sergeant Noel Vieira and Michelle Billings.  SSG Vieira is currently assigned to Ft. Drum, New York; he has served in the U.S. Army for 20 years.

Both both boys showed up quite excited to go fishing this morning.  After asking their moms about any allergies or medical concerns, we then got to “talk fishing”.  I learned that Ryan was my more experienced angler, and that Lukus had never caught a fish before in his life.  So, right then and there, as a confidence booster to Lukus, we whipped out a “bream pole”, baited it up, placed the float and baited hook near some aquatic vegetation and rocks growing near the shore, and came up with the first fish of his lifetime — a bluegill sunfish.  The moms and Ryan cheered for Lukus — and that let me know Ryan was a team player.  Lukus had earned his Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award” and we hadn’t even left the dock yet!!

After waving goodbye to moms, we motored out of the No Wake zone and got down to business.  Over the next four hours we downrigged for white bass and we fished shallow, flooded shoreline cover for a mixed bag of species including all manner of sunfish, small largemouth bass, and blacktail shiners.

Perhaps as an indicator that both boys had watched a little too much of “Shark Week”, they preferred to refer to the white bass we caught as “Great White Bass”.  And, the largest of our white bass, a nice 14″ specimen boated by Ryan was dubbed “The Gi-Normous Great White Bass” —  a term which I understood was a cross between gigantic and enormous.

Suffice it to say that all 3 of us had fun on this trip, during which the boys managed to land a total of 38 fish.  As I followed up with Lukus’ mom after the trip to get his mailing address for the First Fish Award application, she informed me that, “He wants his own boat now. Lol”.

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.  SKIFF is open to children in elementary and middle school, as well as teens in high school.

TALLY = 38 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:05a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temp: 86.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW11

Sky Conditions: <10% cloud cover under the influence of high pressure.

Note: Lake has dropped back to full pool at 622.00 with just a .03′ daily release now

Other: GT= 15

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 041 white bass early

**Area 458 white bass early

**Area 1098 panfish

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This morning I met Mrs. Sarah Santiago at the dock on Belton Lake to take her boys, 8-year-old Miguel and 6-year-old Alex, on a fishing trip booked through the Fort Hood SKIES program.

Alex wanted to be sure it was made known that although Miguel caught the biggest fish of the trip, he (Alex) landed the largest white bass of the trip.

The boys’ mom recently stepped down from her position with the Ft. Hood Children, Youth, and Student Services (CYSS) in advance of a permanent change of station (PCS) move later this year.  The boys’ dad is a commissioned officer on Fort Hood.

Today’s fishing was made tough by clear skies and calm winds in the wake of a mild cold front’s passage yesterday.  There was zero topwater action, and the sub-surface action was a bit slow, too.  We downrigged for 3.5 of our 4 hours as the boys stayed enthused about catching bigger and bigger fish and the possibility of landing a “double” or a “triple” on our 3-armed umbrella rigs.  Each boy did eventually land a double.

After downrigging for a mix of 19 hybrid striped bass and white bass, and as the downrigging bite slowed way down, we headed up into shallow, flooded wood cover and targeted panfish with live bait, allowing the boys to land a variety of species of smaller fish, including green sunfish, bluegill sunfish, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and blacktail shiners.

As the 10:30 hour, and mom’s arrival drew near, I informed the boys that it was time to go.  Alex, without prompting of any sort, told me thank you for taking him fishing and that it was nice to have met.  That’s pretty good for a 6 year old!!

We ended our adventure with 28 fish today, and, despite the slow bite, we were fortunate to have action today from start to finish.

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 = 28 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  77F

Water Surface Temp:  86.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE5-8

Sky Conditions:  A thin. low layer of grey clouds cleared off around 8:45a, leaving <10% clouds on a fair sky.

Note: Lake has dropped 0.03 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 594.92 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1574 downrigging early

**Area 1575/794 downrigging mid-morning

**Area 492 slipfloats for panfish

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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From left: Marlon, Natalie, and Amare with a few of the white bass we landed using downriggers set around 18 feet deep.

Joining me on this trip was Natalie, age 16, and her two younger brothers, Marlon, and Amare, aged 8 and 6 respectively.

We split our time on the water evenly between catching the more numerous, but smaller, sunfish, largemouth bass, and blacktail shiners up in shallow brush, and pursuing the fewer, but larger white bass out in open water.

By the time our trip concluded, the kids had boated a total of 32 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 = 32 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time:  8:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  97F

Water Surface Temp:  86.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: S12

Sky Conditions:  <5%  cloud cover under a strong high pressure dome making hot, dry conditions for the past several days

Note: Lake has dropped 0.02 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 622.35 above sea level, with 622.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1513/568 downrigging

**Area 142/1146 downrigging

**Area 1572 & 832 panfishing with slipfloats

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Thursday, Mrs. Nicole Tyra and her five-year-old son, Cadyn, joined me for a morning of fishing on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.
Due to his young age, I wanted to gauge Cadyn’s manual dexterity and ability to follow directions before we began our trip so I would know what he could and could not do as our adventure unfolded. To do this, I placed a nine-foot bream pole, which is not equipped with a reel, in his hands and gave him some basic instructions about what to do when a fish grabbed the baited hook and pulled his float beneath the surface.
Cadyn did really well. So well, in fact, that in under 5 minutes he had already boated two longear sunfish and a blacktail shiner. As we were working on catching Cadyn’s fourth fish, I overheard his mom, who was in the rear of the boat, say, “Honey, watch this. Cadyn’s catching fish and he’s doing so good!”.

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To my amazement, Cadyn’s father, U.S. Army Specialist Nick Tyra, was watching his son fish in real time from his post in South Korea where he was just wrapping up the day we were just beginning. He did all of this via his wife’s Samsung cellular phone.
Tyra encouraged and praised his son for his accomplishments, got to view a few of the fish we’d placed in the livewell, and then bid his family farewell, but not before “posing” for a photo with the rest of his family as Cadyn proudly displayed one of his fish.
Specialist Tyra is one of a large contingent from Fort Hood’s 1st Cavalry Division now deployed to South Korea. Tyra, a tracked vehicle mechanic originally from Indiana, has been in the Army since 2010.
Using a technology offered through Facebook called “Messenger”, Tyra is able to keep up with his family of five, which also includes two younger children, two-year-old Bentley, and eight-month-old Carson.
During their “date”, mother and son were able to enjoy the outdoors together while Mrs. Tyra’s father, visiting from Arizona, babysat her younger two children. Tyra cheered her son on in landing a total of 39 fish and one turtle. Cadyn was introduced to bait fishing, downrigger fishing, and fishing with a spinning outfit. For his efforts, he landed a total of 7 species of fish including white bass, bluegill sunfish, longear sunfish, freshwater drum, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and blacktail shiners.
As we parted ways in the parking lot following our fishing trip, Cadyn hugged my leg and a very grateful mom thanked me for offering this opportunity to her and other Army families.

 

 

Jake and Chris are both Specialists in the U.S. Army working in Army Aviation, specifically, with the Apache attack helicopter.  They share a common interest in fishing and contacted me about a month ago to schedule this trip after finding me using a Google search.

When Jake and I first spoke, he told me about a fairly elaborate contest that he and about 5-6 other friends had entered into.  The way I understand it, the entire group agrees upon a contest start date and end date — typically around a 9-month span.  During that time, each participant weighs and photographs each fish they catch using a Berkley digital scale.  The fish are released, but the cumulative weight is tallied.  At the end of the 9-month period, the person with the highest cumulative weight is declared the winner.  What does the winner get, you may ask?  The same group has developed plans for a grand trophy rivaling the size and appearance hockey’s Stanley Cup.  Now, this Stanley Cup of Angling has never actually been made, but, just the idea of winning such a grand prize, even if it is in a conceptual state only, is evidently enough to keep these guys going.

And so it was, for every one of the 53 fish we put in the boat today, a quick weight was taken, along with an accompanying photo!

Fortunately, the fish cooperated sufficiently this morning to help advance both Jake and Chris in their standings.  We shoved off right at 6:45am, and were into fish within 10 minutes.  At first we downrigged for high-riding suspended fish up high in the water column taking advantage of the minimal light available there.  As the wind and light level increased, the fish pushed down in the water column and began to feed within a few feet of the bottom.  By 8:45am a full-on feed was going on, allowing us to put over 30 fish in the boat over the next hour.

Every last fish we boated today was a white bass, ranging from 1-3 years old and going from 0.25 pounds up to just a shade over 1 pound (remember, we actually weighed EVERY one!!).

As the action was ramping up and tapering down, we boated fish on Pet Spoons fished on a tandem rig behind downriggers, and, when the feed was peaked, we caught them within feet of bottom on slabs and bladebaits worked horizontally.

We finished up with 53 fish, with only 1 fish landed in the final hour on the water.

TALLY = 53 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  74F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE12-13 for the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100% heavy cloud cover.

Note: Most fish showed evidence of feeding on mayfly nymphs, as well as shad.

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 088/129

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Today I fished Stillhouse Hollow for white bass with the sole purpose of determining the effectiveness of a new product by Gamakatsu called the G-Stinger.  This is an assist hook designed to increase the strike-to-land ratio on baits it is affixed to.

The single hooks fasted to the top of these two 3/4 oz. slabs are the new Gamakatsu G-Stinger assist hooks — the focus of today’s experiment.

I began with four slabs. Two weighed three-quarters of an ounce and two weighed three-eighths of an ounce. On the two that weighed three-quarters, I took the treble hook off of one and affixed an assist hook to the line tie, giving that lure a total of one hook point to catch into a fish’s mouth. On the other, I left the treble hook in place and added the assist hook, giving that lure a total of four hook points to catch into a fish’s mouth. I altered the set of two 3/8-ounce baits in the same manner.

I headed out on Stillhouse Hollow in pursuit of white bass, equipped with four rods equipped with just these four altered lures. I found active white bass feeding under gulls and began jigging with these modified baits. I used the 3/4-ounce bait with the treble hook and assist hook affixed to it first. My aim was to fish until I caught five fish on each lure and compare my results. On this first lure, I caught five fish on six strikes quickly, with three of them hooked by the treble, one of them hooked by the assist hook only, and one of them hooked by both the treble and the assist hook.

I then experimented with the 3/4-ounce lure with only the assist hook affixed to it. Although I caught five fish, I missed a number of strikes and so it took nearly twice as long to catch this “set” of five fish. Next, I used the 3/8-ounce lure with both hooks attached and again put five fish in the boat in short order. This time, three of the fish were hooked with both hooks, and the other two were hooked on the treble hook only. Finally, I experimented with the 3/8-ounce bait with only the assist hook affixed to it. Again, more missed strikes, although it took less time to land five fish on this bait than on the 3/4-ounce bait with only the assist hook attached.

Through this experiment, the number of incidents where the assist hook was firmly set into the fish was convincing to me.  Even though my “sample set” was low, the number of fish in which the assist hook was buried, AND ESPECIALLY THE NUMBER OF FISH WHERE THE ASSIST HOOK ALONE WAS BURIED, has convinced me that this very inexpensive and easy to affix addition is well-worth placing on all of my vertical jigging rods, which I have now done.

This morning I went white bass fishing on Central Texas’ Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir with Isaiah and Joshua Glenn, accompanied by their grandparents, Lonnie and Linda Glenn.  This trip was in celebration of the boys’ birthdays which both occur in December.  Joshua will be turning 10, and Isaiah will be turning 11.

Isaiah Glenn of Moody, TX, earned a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. Big Fish Award by landing this 15 1/16 inch long white bass.

Not to be outdone by his big brother, Joshua boated our largest fish of the trip, this 4.75 pound channel catfish.  That’s proud grandpa Lonnie lending a helping hand.

Lonnie and Linda live near the Leon River in Moffat, Texas, and the boys live in Moody, TX.  Linda retired from lab work at Scott & White and now works at the Belton Wal-Mart, and Lonnie is a retired corrections officer who now does a bit of remodeling and carpentry work.

We had great weather conditions for about 3.5 of our 4 hours on the water as a mild, dry cold front moved through the area after a spell of very mild, damp weather over the past several days.  Under grey skies and with winds pushing at 11-12 mph, we found fish very willing to feed.

We first encountered fish in ~25 feet of water under actively feeding gulls over a 120 yard stretch of lake right at sunrise.  Although we were successful in putting a few fish in the boat on slabs, these fish were moving a lot and were aggressively feeding throughout the water column, so, despite water temperatures being in the high 50’s, we downrigged for about 45 minutes, putting a total of 13 fish in the boat during this time, including 2 “doubles” that tagged our 3-armed umbrella rigs.  I took the umbrella rig off when I saw the forage that the gulls were plucking off the water was fairly good sized, replacing the rigs with a Storm Thin Fin on one rod and with a White Willow spoon on the other.  When the birds stopped feeding, the fish went on feeding about 15 more minutes and then settled down.

I next headed shallower hoping we could get a few fish on a flatline trolling approach, and, at Area 103, we immediately connected with a nice white bass, but, that was the only fish we connected with in that manner, so, we left the trolling routine behind and headed to deeper water to work slabs for more heavily congregated fish.

We arrived at what would be our final area of the day around 9:50 and saw a spattering of fish on sonar, most near a breakline dropping from 24 to 35 feet.  We e-anchored right over top of this breakline and I proceeded to give the boys instructions on how to execute an “easing” tactic.  I felt this tactic would serve us best since fish fish were still aggressive and they showed to be holding well off the bottom and down to the bottom, as well.  No sooner did all 3 of our slabs contact bottom than we were all hooked up on a fish.  This strong action continued for right at an hour as we pulled 64 fish from an area directly beneath our boat and never moved.  As the skies began to brighten and the clouds began to clear from north to south, the bite slacked off and finally stopped around 11:25a.

For our efforts today, we boated 77 white bass and 1 channel catfish.  The channel catfish, caught by Joshua, weighed 4.75 pounds.  One of Isaiah’s white bass taped in a 15 1/16″ and earned him a TPWD Big Fish award by exceeding the threshold length set for this species, which is 15.00 inches.  Isaiah will received a certificate for this accomplishment complete with a gold raised-seal of the State of Texas affixed to it.

TALLY = 78 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  55F

Water Surface Temp:  57.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  N11-12

Sky Conditions: 100% grey skies with no direct sunlight until 10:30a when skies began to clear from the north.

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1310/1496 = 13 fish via jigging and downrigging (BA=20G, 1L)

**Area 130 = 1 fish on the flatline (BA=8G,10C)

**Area 074 ~20 yards to the NW =  64 fish via easing and smoking

Bob Maindelle

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)