I fished a half-day morning trip today on Stillhouse with 2 young men headed to 5th Grade this coming Monday — Josh V. and Aaron C., both of Harker Heights. This was the sixth SKIFF Program trip that I’ve run. SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. SKIFF trips are funded by donations both given by and collected by the members of the Austin Fly Fishers. AFF has commissioned me to take the children of soldiers deployed in harm’s way and the children of soldiers who have died while on active duty on guided fishing trips. Josh’s dad is currently serving in Baghdad, Iraq, and Aaron’s dad passed away while on active duty.

Josh V. (L) and Aaron C. (R) show 2 of 24 fish taken by teamwork today!!

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:10a

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~84.6F

Wind: Winds were light from the SE at around 6 at sunrise, increasing to 13 by 8:45am and staying steady at that velocity the remainder of the trip.

Skies: Skies were partly cloudy (~70%) all morning.

Aaron, Josh and I departed the dock at sunrise and spent a bit of time visually searching for topwater action while the winds were light and the sun low. We initially searched from Area 126 to Area 254 with little sighted.

We then headed to look over Area 232 and did spot fish over deep open water feeding very randomly and in small packs way out to the east of this area. The surface area over which these fish could be seen was quite vast but the density of the fish was minimal. This was not a suitable situation for young casters as it required quick, very accurate casts and a rapid retrieve. We motored from one pack of fish to another only to find the same thing at each location — very scattered, briefly appearing pods of schoolie-sized largemouth.

I decided downrigging was once again going to be the order of the day and got the boys trained on the equipment in short order. We trolled a strip from Area 454 to Area 207 and came up with nothing.

We then took it over to Area 458 and found very consistent action from suspended and bottom-hugging white bass in 23-26 feet of water. We got into a groove here where one boy would hookup, and the other would bring in the released downrigger ball, I would unhook the fish, and the boy doing the catching would then set his line back out and get it ready to catch again. We went through 14 fish this way, including one double, all but one of which were white bass right at 13.25 inches (the other was a 15.5″ black bass). On one of our trolling passes, I spotted some solid bottom-oriented fish and threw a buoy intending to try to give the boys a chance to work bladebaits down on bottom for a change of pace. As we got set up with our faces to the wind and in a hover position with the trolling motor, we cast our bladebaits out and worked them lift-drop style back to the boat. We wound up with 6 fish caught this way, all white bass around 11.75 inches.

Once that school of fish played out, we returned to downrigging and pulled 2 more whites out of this vicinity while noticing the fish and bait were thinning out pretty good.

We then headed out to find more fish and bait. We scouted Areas 444, 471, and 196, and finally found a few fish on sonar at Area 460 and worked a couple passes just to catch 2 of these to finish off the trip on a good note. By now it was getting time get the boys back to dockside so we called it a great trip with 24 fish taken and released.

TALLY = 24 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing