WHO I FISHED WITH: This Presidents’ Day Monday I set aside both my morning and evening trips to take soldiers’ kids out on the water fishing through the SKIFF program.

This morning I welcomed aboard the Ausman brothers, Jameson (age 11) , William (age 9), and Samson (age 7).

The boys’ father, U.S. Army Colonel Charles Ausman, is a logistician currently deployed to southwest Asia where he is winding down a 9-month-long separation from his kids and wife, Jessi.

ABOUT SKIFF: SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009. SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru.

S.K.I.F.F. provides children of military personnel separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish. SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member. In mid-2019, SKIFF began providing trips to kids of bona fide disabled veterans. I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

Next available dates are 26-29 Feb. (AMs)

Here is how the fishing went…




PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jameson, William, and Samson Ausman with a portion of their 50-fish Presidents’ Day 2024 catch from out of Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.






PHOTO CAPTION: Jameson and Samson double-teamed this large drum. It was our final fish of the trip, so, I assigned Jameson as the net man as Samson worked the rod and reel, and by hook or by crook, the fish wound up in the boat!






PHOTO CAPTION: William brought this channel catfish (an unusual catch on slabs) to net, and Jameson closed the deal with an accurate, well-timed scoop.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 19 Feb. 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going right at 7:20 this morning and fished until right at 11 AM. Although the two-day cold snap, which began late Friday with an incoming cold front and ended today as southerly winds returned, didn’t help things any, it also didn’t set things back noticeably, either.



The fish remained in just about the same locations doing the same things at the same times as they were last week, prior to the cold front. I did note that there seemed to be more actual migratory movement by fish moving undaunted & straight parallel to the river channel. When I say undaunted, I mean no matter what they might be presented with, their minds were made up that they were just going to keep right on swimming.



Only infrequently would one of these fish be duped. Noting this early on, I tried to put the boys on bottom-oriented fish instead, so they did not have to deal with adjusting bait height to suspended fish, nor with detecting a light bite and then setting the hook, given their limited experience.



When all was said and done, the boys caught every last one of their fish by doing a slow-smoking, retrieve up off the bottom with most of the fish landed being fish which originated on the bottom and chased the boys’ baits upwards. Birds were helpful for about half of this 3.5-hour adventure. After that, we had to rely solely on sonar. The only bait we employed this morning was the white, 5/8 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.



If I’d had more experienced anglers aboard, I’d likely have given dead-sticking for those migratory fish, a try, but I just didn’t see the wisdom in that this morning.



The boys caught exactly 50 fish, including three largemouth bass, two freshwater drum, one channel catfish, and 44 white bass, every last one of which was legal.

Here is a tutorial on the snap-jigging method … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtrnAQ_T94&t=55s

Here is a tutorial on the slow-smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released



OBSERVATIONS: I spotted the first mosquito hawk of the spring this morning, and the first red-winged blackbird just showed up at our bird feeder.



WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 35F

Elevation: 16.87 feet low, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 52.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW 5-10 all morning

Sky Condition: Cloudless, pale blue skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 78% illumination.

GT = N/A



Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Vic 100 (4 fish), vic 338 (13 fish), vic 1536 (20 fish), vic 074 (13 fish)


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

Always love seeing the kiddos fishing and having a good time. Awesome post.