WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, August 10th, I conducted the tenth Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip of the 2022 season.

I welcomed aboard the Froschauer family including Abby (mom), and her daughters, 9-year-old Molly, and 8-year-old Rose.

The girls’ father, U.S. Army Master Sergeant (E-8) Paul Froschauer, has been serving for 19 1/2 years. He is a part of the Army’s Armor Branch and was recently deployed to Germany.

ABOUT SKIFF: This fishing trip was provided to this military family at no charge. S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. This program began in May of 2009. It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with. S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing. SKIFF trips are also provided, free of charge, to Gold Star families who have lost their service member while he or she was on active duty. In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents are bona fide disabled veterans. I coordinate and conduct these ~3.5-hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

My next open date for a free SKIFF trip for qualifying families will be on August 23rd.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: Rose Froschauer holds a “triple” she landed on a 3-armed umbrella rig while we were downrigging at mid-morning as her sister, Molly, looks on.




PHOTO CAPTION: Molly landed our big fish of the trip. This healthy largemouth bass was fought to boatside by Molly and successfully netted by my summer intern, Andy Li.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 10 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Only time will tell if this is the weather system which breaks the back of our hot, dry summer, but a mild cold front which pushed into north Texas overnight is forecast to bring cooler temperatures and some rain later today. In advance of that weather, we had light winds and abundant cloud cover this morning which kept the temperatures bearable by diminishing the direct sun’s rays.

With two young ladies aboard, both with limited prior experience, and only one (Rose) with a burning desire to fish, I thought it best to go for some ‘instant gratification’ fishing right off the bat. Hence, along with my ‘first mate’ Andy Li who joined me as a summer intern, we prepared bream rods to enable the girls to catch sunfish from out of the hydrilla matted around the shoreline.

Our first stop yielded exactly 30 sunfish, including bluegill, longears, and greens, before the girls expressed a readiness for a little something different.

We retooled and got setup for downrigging with twin downriggers, each equipped with a 3-armed umbrella rig towing three #12 Pet Spoons. The downrigging produced well as we encountered mobile schools of suspended white bass routinely. The girls landed two triples, and numerous doubles and singles as we thoroughly worked areas where sonar revealed ample collections of bait (young-of-the-year threadfin shad).

After downrigging for a while, we happened upon what would be the single greatest concentration of fish we would encounter all morning. Fortunately, this large school of fish was holding on the bottom and less mobile than the suspended fish we’d encountered up to this point. I stopped the boat and we worked MAL Dense Lures both vertically and horizontally to pick up about a dozen additional white bass.

Molly was our first to wear out, and Rose wasn’t far behind. Picking up on this, I offered that we could conclude our trip, or we could go back to doing one of the techniques we’d done previously (sunfishing or downrigging). At first it was a 50/50 split decision for downrigging and sunfishing, but, after some deliberation amongst themselves, the girls chose sunfishing for their final effort of the morning. Each landed one more sunfish for a final total of 60 fish, and we called it a great morning before the Texas sun broke through the morning clouds.

Our 60 fish tally included 32 sunfish, 2 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, and 24 white bass (no shorts)

The smoking tactic we used is demonstrated here (skip to 2:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 60 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Slowly but surely the white bass are beginning to show a definite preference for horizontal retrieves over vertical retrieves. I suspect “thermal squeeze” is the root cause, keeping the fish confined to the cooler water just above the thermocline. I suspect they are reluctant to rise up into increasingly warm water nearer the surface.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 8.13 feet low, 0.06′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW5-7 all morning

Sky Condition: 80% white cloud cover on a blue sky.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 96% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 334 – 30 sunfish on slipfloats & bait

Area vic SH0209G – downrigging for a mixed bag of white, drum, and largemouth

Area vic 889 – MAL Dense worked vert. and horiz. for white bass

Area 334 – 2 sunfish on slipfloats & bait



Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle
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Awesome post. God bless our military and their families.