Fishing from a S.K.I.F.F. – 45 Fish
CLIENTS: This evening, Wednesday, September 16, I fished the 16th SKIFF trip of the 2026 season. Joining me was nine-year-old Paisley Keep-Barnes, accompanied by her mother, Zienna.
Paisley‘s father, Eli Keep-Barnes, is a disabled veteran who served 12 years in the U.S. Army in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD).
The family became aware of the SKIFF program thanks to the efforts of Mr. Anthony Vaughters with the Killeen Parks and Recreation Department.
ABOUT SKIFF: Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (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, The Great Place Spouses’ Club, The Great Place Thrift Store, and VFW Post 4008 in Belton, TX. SKIFF provides kids of military members 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, and 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 to make your reservation. We’ve provided trips for over 660 children, and those kids have landed over 18,000 fish.
TODAY’S DATE: 16 September 2026 (PM)
NEXT OPEN MORNING DATES: 18, 29, 30 Sep. 2026
NEXT OPEN AFTERNOON DATES: 17, 18, 29, 30 Sep. 2026
PHOTO CAPTION: A nice evening white bass bite kept Paisley busy for the last 1.25 hours of our trip. We started downrigging for them, then saw them hitting topwater, then, after they disappeared, caught them on MAL Bridge Lures.
PHOTO CAPTION: Catfish kept Paisley setting the hook during the middle part of our trip, between early sunfish and late white bass. She landed 10 cats, all on punchbait.
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
With the 2026–2027 school year now underway, requests for afternoon trips are much more common. This afternoon, we met up at 4:15 PM and fished until 7:45 PM. I broke this trip down into three segments. In the first segment, Paisley fished with a bream pole up in shallow, visible cover for sunfish, using bait under an adjustable balsa float. She landed a mix of 15 sunfish, including green sunfish, longear sunfish, and bluegill sunfish.
In the second segment, we returned to a chummed area we had baited prior to starting the sunfishing. Using punch bait on a number six treble hook kept approximately 9 inches off bottom, Paisley landed a mix of 10 blue cat and channel cat taking her trip tally up to 25 fish landed.
In the final segment of the trip, and with about an hour and 15 minutes of fishing light left, we began downrigging for white bass taking three singles and a double on downrigged #12 Pet Spoons fished behind three-armed umbrella rigs. This took Paisley‘s tally to 30 fish before I spotted schooling white bass on the surface in the choppy surface conditions.
Once I spotted these fish, I broke out the Cork Rig with Sandy Sandwich Streamer on a 27 inch leader behind it and we sight-cast to these fish until they disappeared, but not before putting another dozen fish in the boat. Once these fish left the surface, I searched for fish up shallow using side-imaging, and once I found what I was after, we finished up the trip by using the sawtooth method with MAL Bridge lures, allowing us an additional three fish caught and wrapping Paisley‘s trip up with exactly 45 fish landed.
Paisley caught more than double the 27 fish average for the kids I have treated to these SKIFF trips since May of 2009!
RESULTS: 45 fish, all caught and released
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
SEE THE “SMOKING TACTIC” TUTORIAL HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
OBSERVATIONS:
-High pressure is firmly back in control of our weather bringing summer weather our way at least until 21 Sept. when forecasters call for a break thanks to an incoming cold front.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 03 Sep. 2026, approx 6:05AM…
0 feet 87.0F
5 feet 87.3F
10 feet 87.3F
15 feet 87.0F
20 feet 86.2F
25 feet 86.1F
30 feet 85.9F
35 feet 84.7F
40 feet 81.1F
45 feet 72.8F
50 feet 71.0F
55 feet 68.2F
60 feet 67.2F
65 feet 66.0F
Taken on Lake Belton on 26 Aug. 2026, approx. 6:15AM ..
0 feet 86.7F
5 feet 86.7F
10 feet 86.7F
15 feet 86.7F
20 feet 86.5F
25 feet 85.9F
30 feet 85.3F
35 feet 84.3F
40 feet 80.2F
45 feet 74.4F
50 feet 71.5F
55 feet 70.0F
60 feet 68.4F
65 feet 65.9F
.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 4:15P
End Time: 7:45P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 95F
Elevation – Lake Belton fell to 1.34′ low, with a 0.03′ loss in the last 24 hours. Flow rate was 52 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 88.4F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SE3-6
Sky Condition: 30% white cloud cover on a blue sky all afternoon
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 30% illumination
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 2614 – 15 sunfish on bait under a float
Area SEPCAT03 – 10 catfish on punchbait
Area 2328 thru 2335- 5 white bass on downrigged #12 Pet Spoons
Area 147 – 12 white bass on Cork Rig with Sandy Sandwich Streamer
Area 013 – 3 white bass on sawtoothed MAL Bridge Lures
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: https://www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle